Factors that Affect Elementary English Education in China in the 21st Century

Abstract

With the development of globalization in the 21^st century, English has gradually become one of the main tools for communication between countries and people in the world. As a large developing country, China has become more active in the international community in recent years. Therefore, English is an indispensable tool for China to communicate with other countries and to bring Chinese culture to the world. With the increasing use and importance of the language, English education is becoming more necessary and experiencing development in China. Currently, since it is believed that younger children have a stronger ability to learn new languages, more and more younger children are encouraged to learn English (Guo & Guo). English instruction in primary schools, therefore, is essential for students to become fluent in this language. However, in the past decade, primary school English instruction has been facing some difficulties, including the imbalance of English education quality in different regions caused by economic development, the barrier of learning English pronunciation brought by dialects in different parts of China, and the negative impact of excessive after-school tutoring institutions on the quality of English teaching in schools. These challenges hinder the development of English education and need to be recognized and solved.